IEM Cologne 2025 will live long in the memory for multiple reasons: the end of Vitality’s streak, Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets’ (first) Cologne title, Mouz coming so far only to painfully fall at the final hurdle, etc. However, in my mind, the theme that ran most presciently through the whole event was the new generation of players debuting and delivering at IEM Cologne.
Ivan ‘zweih’ Gogin, Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri, and Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin shone bright in Cologne, all three making their first appearance at the event, with makazze and kyousuke making their Tier One debuts.
The ability of these players to deliver so early on in their Counter-Strike journeys may show that the step up is less daunting than in previous generations, as lower levels become more professionalised.
Could the success of these young guns be a sign of more to come?
zweih gives Spirit a higher ceiling
In an event that elevated youth, it is extremely fitting that zweih got the final kill of the tournament to secure Spirit their first-ever IEM Cologne. Prior to joining Spirit, the height of the 17-year-old’s career took place in June, finishing 15-16th at the BLAST.tv Austin Major. Now it is lifting the IEM Cologne trophy.
Replacing Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev in the off-season, the teenager never looked out of place in Cologne despite modest group stage starts against Heroic and Aurora, however, the qualification match against Mouz saw impressive Ancient and Overpass performances.
Ultimately, his level was sufficient to see them reach the playoffs, but zweih wasn’t happy. Regarding his group stage performance, the young gun told HLTV, “We won all three games, but I think that I could play much better than I played.” Looking to the playoffs, zweih asserted that he hadn’t been able to focus on his crosshair as the body of new information and protocols weighed on his mind.
A debutant in the arena, the Russian stepped up on the big stage instead of wilting as so many do. In the playoffs. Looking at his body language, it was as if the 17-year-old was gaming in his bedroom rather than in front of 20,000 people. In-game, zweih’s improvement came naturally with more familiarity with his new team and roles in the roster, culminating in that winning kill.
Make no mistake, zweih is not there to be the new star. His role is to enable Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets to get more trade-kills, rather than being the risky first one in, but with zweih already matching magixx’s output at the first time of asking, the Russian youth has the potential to add that extra 5% that Spirit has been sorely lacking since the beginning of the year.
We saw zweih’s ability to step up individually several times in Cologne. If that becomes a theme, then Spirit might finally be able to compete with Vitality’s A-game.
makazze improves NaVi’s balance
To be completely honest, makazze’s individual performances were extremely up and down at IEM Cologne 2025. From a 1.81 rating against FaZe on Ancient, to a 0.65 rating against MOUZ on Mirage. Even within individual maps, makazze went from liability to hard carry, recovering from a 2-9 start against the MongolZ on Inferno to finish with a 31=27 KD.
The last thing NaVi need is more inconsistency in their rifling core. In the previous season, Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy, Mihai ‘iM’ Ivan, and Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius all had their moments individually but rarely at the same time. NaVi need that player who will deliver time and time again to grow.
So why is makazze’s addition something to be celebrated then? Firstly, considering the Kosovoan is only 18, and this is his first Tier One event ever, so showing the positive signs he did is proof of concept for his promotion. makazze himself stressed the need to step up and play “smart CS,” to build the basis for consistency as a Tier One competitor.
Secondly, makazze’s roles mean a role switch elsewhere, which may have been NaVi’s silent buff in Cologne. b1ad3 spoke to HLTV, noting that makazze has largely been given positions that he is comfortable with. In practice, that means iM and makazze are sharing jL’s old spots, with iM taking more passive and lurking positions. The result was iM’s best individual event for six months, despite a tough performance against Spirit.
Rather infamously, iM once said in an interview, “I cannot be the guy who’s saving the team” despite playing star positions. Now with makazze, he may have positions and responsibilities he’s more comfortable with. Stylistically, iM has always played star positions like a lurker, displaying calculated aggression rather than aggressive space-taking. With makazze, the balance between those two natures looks better, and iM looks better.
Ultimately, NaVi could have defeated Spirit; they arguably should have defeated Spirit 2-0 despite Spirit being the favoured team with esports betting sites. They start the season looking less far adrift of the competition than last season. If they can build consistency with makazze and improve their shallow map pool, they might be dark horses at some events.
Will this one change get them back to winning trophies? I don’t think so, but you count out Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Horodenskyi at your peril.
kyousuke the future of Team Falcons
Despite Team Falcons Cologne crash out, Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin remained one of the best individuals at the event, averaging a 1.39 rating.
The Falcons displayed an overall disjointedness at Cologne, an event which continued the roster’s overall pattern of regression since pushing Vitality to the edge at Melbourne.
Regardless, the rifler, labelled as ‘the next donk’ by some, looked every bit as mechanically dominant as he had with Spirit Academy in online matches. kyousuke’s Cologne was perhaps best summed up by his final map at the event, a 13-7 loss on Dust II to Furia in which the Russian went 22-13 in a 1.70 HLTV-rated performance, with no other Falcons player going positive.
In signing kyousuke, Falcons knew they had issues to solve despite the firepower he brings. They now have too many star players to have them all in star roles. This meant Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač shifting positions, and resultingly having his worst individual event since IEM Rio 2024.
This headache of their own creation won’t be easy for Falcons to fix, but if they can get the roster functioning, then kyousuke is capable of being the player who takes them to trophies on a long-term basis.
For Falcons, that’s a $2,000,000 “if.”
The overall picture painted by IEM Cologne is that the disparity between Tier One and Tier Two/Academy levels is diminishing. Outstanding academy players, like kyousuke or makazze are capable of upgrading their rosters’ firepower, in spite of the increased scrutiny, anti-stratting and so on at the highest levels of Counter-Strike.
Academy rosters and Tier Two are more tactically adept than ever, making the transition easier. In NaVi Junior and Spirit’s case, they could even be moulded to make the transition to the main roster easier.
The final itself was contested between two teams that benefitted from academy rosters, with MOUZ’s core being that of their dominant MOUZ NXT academy roster, and Spirit benefiting from their academy graduates of Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia and donk, with Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov graduating from Gambit Youngsters.
With VRS issues making players harder to acquire, and individual player transfer fees now reaching multi-millions, the importance of having a productive academy may be crucial to the success of several organisations.
More than that, however, is the lesson that rosters can move away from the model of recycling old players and promote youth instead, knowing that the previous months and years it took to get those players up to speed are now mere weeks.
In Kyousuke, we may have seen ‘the next donk’ debut at IEM Cologne 2025, but my bet is that it won’t be long until there is a ‘next kyousuke.’
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Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
